Employees, Sellafield (Hansard, 26 April 1949)

§ Mr. Key

Employees of the Ministry of Works and of its contractors at Sellafield are paid according to the rates laid down by the National Joint Council of the Building Industry for that district. The average weekly earnings, including bonus, range from £7 to £8 3s. 10d. for tradesmen and from £6 5s. 10d. to £6 19s. 6d. for labourers. Bonuses are calculated according to the schedules agreed between the Department, or each contractor, and the local joint production council, and are paid seven to 11 days in arrears. Working is to a standard 47-hour week but about one-fifth of the em-

The information regarding the sugar refining capacity of the United Kingdom is as follows (All the undermentioned figures are expressed in terms of refined sugar in tons):
	1939	End 1945	Present Time
1. Sugar refineries, annual capacity	2,100,000	1,900,000	2,300,000
2. Beet sugar factories: (18 factories of which 12 white sugar and six raw sugar):
(a) Campaign production based on normal yield	500,000	450,000	500,000
3. (b) Off-season refining: (12 factories):
(i)Potential capacity	750,000	750,000	800,000
(ii) Realistic capacity	400,000	300,000	400,000

For off-season refining "potential capacity" is a meaningless figure, as it assumes that at each of the 12 white sugar factories, off-season refining could be carried on simultaneously without a break from February to August. In practice, this is quite impossible, owing to the large amount of maintenance and repairs which have to be carried out each year after the close of the beet campaign. Apart from this, only half of the white 6W ployees work up to 12 hours' overtime, as agreed with the local joint overtime committee, and are paid at overtime rates as laid down by the national working rules for the building industry.